£500,000 lawyer tops legal aid fatcat league

This is the barrister paid the most from legal-aid in civil cases, earning almost half a million pounds in one year.

Figures show Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel was paid £493,000 from the public purse for acting in cases arising from clinical negligence, personal injury and child abuse.

According to a table of top earning barristers published by the Government today, Ms Gumbel beat her nearest male counterpart by just £1,000.

Ms Gumbel, considered one of the best barristers in her field, earned the money in civil legal aid cases during 2005 to 2006 while Jeremy Rosenblat t received £492,000.

Two other women were in the top 10 earners. The 10 received almost £4 million in civil legal aid between them, the lowest paid of whom got £306,000.

The figures will reignite the debate about the huge earnings that can be made from publicly-funded work.

Conservative MP John Baron, who tabled the question in the Commons which produced the figures, said: "This shows we have one of the most generous legal aid systems in the world. Doctors and nurses wouldn't have a hope of getting even close to these sort of salaries."

According to the figures, Ms Gumbel has now earned almost £1.5million in the past four years from legal aid work in civil cases. The Ministry for Justice emphasised that the earnings do not indicate yearly pay but rather turnover for one year - that could reflect work done in earlier years but only paid later.

The Bar Council has been keen to point out in the past that the figures do not take into account barristers' overheads and expenses which can account for 30 per cent of their income.

Educated at Wycombe Abbey School and Oxford's Lady Margaret Hall, Ms Gumbel - known to friends as Lizanne - was called to the Bar in 1974 and was made a QC in 1999.

Ms Gumbel is a member of One Crown Office Row, one of the leading barristers chambers in the country.

According to her entry on the website, she is described as "exceptionally committed" as well as "fearsome".

Last week Ms Gumbel won £8.5million compensation for Adam Wakeling who was 17 when he was hit by a motorist high on crack cocaine as he cycled in Hackney in September 2003.